the soviet and post-soviet review 44 (2017) 314-341 brill.com/spsr Joseph Grigulevich: A Tale of Identity, Soviet Espionage, and Storytelling Andrei Znamenski Professor of History, Department of History, 219 Mitchell Hall, The University of Memphis, Memphis, tn 38152
[email protected] Abstract This paper explores the life of Joseph Grigulevich (1913–1988), a famous early Soviet illegal intelligence operative, who conducted various “special tasks” on behalf of Sta- lin’s foreign espionage network. These included the murder of dissident Spanish com- munist Andreas Nin (1938), a participation in the assassination of Leon Trotsky (1940), posing as a Costa Rican ambassador (1949–1952), and an abortive project to assassinate Joseph Bros Tito (1952). In contrast to conventional espionage studies that are usually informed by diplomatic, political, and military history approaches, I employ a cultural history angle. First, the paper examines the formation of Grigulevich’s communist and espionage identity against his background as a cosmopolitan Jewish “other” from the interwar Polish-Lithuanian realm. Second, it explores his role in the production and invention of intelligence knowledge, which he later used to jump start his second ca- reer as a prominent Soviet humanities scholar and a bestselling writer of revolutionary non-fiction. Keywords Joseph Grigulevich – Soviet espionage – Comintern – Jewish Diaspora – Spanish Civil War – Cold War – nkvd – kgb This paper explores the life of Joseph Grigulevich (1913–1988), a famous early Soviet illegal who operated in Europe and Latin America from 1936 to 1952. In contrast to conventional espionages studies that are more often than not are informed by diplomatic, political, and military history approaches, mine is a cultural angle.